Noun
The power, spirit, or principles of a despot; absolute control over others; tyrannical sway; tyranny.
A government which is directed by a despot; a despotic monarchy; absolutism; autocracy.
Source: Webster's dictionaryTimid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty. Thomas Jefferson
We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed. Thomas Jefferson
Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism. Barry Goldwater
The revolutionary government is the despotism of liberty against tyranny. Georg Büchner
Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism. Mary McCarthy
Despotism can no more exist in a nation until the liberty of the press be destroyed than the night can happen before the sun is set. Charles Caleb Colton